The present invention relates generally to a regulator for an apparatus including a two-speed motor and a controller for requesting motor operation, and more particularly to an improved regulator for an air conditioning unit including a single-phase, two-speed compressor.
Numerous regulating mechanisms of this type are presently available. One such mechanism for an air conditioning system is amply described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,519 (issued Jan. 27, 1976 and hereinafter "the Pfarrer patent"), and attention is specifically but without limitation directed to FIGS. 1, 2, 6 and 7 and column 3, line 29 through column 6, line 21. This and other pertinent prior art mechanisms include a series of contactors, electrically and mechanically interconnected and interrelated. (As use herein, the terms "contactor", "energizable contactor" and obvious derivatives thereof mean a relay-like mechanism, including a coil and at least one contact having a normal state, e.g., normally open, and all equivalents thereof. When the coil is energized by an electric current, the contact switches to the opposite state.)
In other words, the operation of each contactor in the regulating mechanism is dependent upon the operation or operational state of one or more of the other contactors therein. In the Pfarrer patent, for example, energization of the appropriate contactors for high speed compressor operation electrically and mechanically prevents energization of the low contactor. To achieve this interdependence, the apparatus includes complex interlocking electrical circuitry and mechanical coupling.